Senior Obama Era Officials the Target of Subpoenas Over Unmasking

The House Intelligence Committee issued seven subpoenas as part of an ongoing investigation into Russian meddling into the 2016 election. Three of the subpoenas involve seeking information on senior Obama era officials, including former National Security Adviser Susan Rice, former CIA Director John Brennan, and former UN Ambassador Samantha Power.

James Rosen of Fox News reported, “FOX News has confirmed that the FBI, the CIA, and the National Security Agency were all served today with subpoenas issued by the House Intelligence Committee.”

He added, “Sources say each of these subpoenas referenced unmasking and each named as figures of interest three senior Obama era officials.”

The Wall Street Journal, which first reported the subpoenas, said that the committee also subpoenaed the National Security Agency (NSA), FBI and CIA for information about “unmasking,” that is, the exposure of Trump campaign officials mentioned in classified intelligence reports, based on intercepts of conversations. Names of Americans swept up incidentally in the collection of intelligence are normally masked, or kept redacted, in intelligence briefings, but under the law, national security officials can request that these names be revealed, or unmasked.

The subpoenas related to unmasking, according to the Journal, seek information about requests made by then-National Security Adviser Susan Rice, then-CIA Director John Brennan and then-U.N. Ambassador Samantha Power to unmask names contained in classified documents.

Will the mainstream media cover the subpoenas involving the unmasking controversy as fervently as they’ve covered the Michael Flynn story?

We’d be shocked.

Too bad the biased MSM won’t give the same coverage on the Susan Rice subpoena as they did with the Flynn subpoena.

Rice, was outed back in April as the source for inappropriately ‘unmasking’ Trump administration officials.

She had previously claimed she knew “nothing” about intelligence reports that were cited and used to unmask members of Trump campaign and transition team.

During a House Intelligence Committee hearing, Rep. Trey Gowdy grilled FBI Director James Comey about possible sources for leaks, particularly pertaining to former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn, who was forced to resign.

At the time, three people close to President Obama were identified as having the authority to ‘unmask’ individuals caught up in ‘incidental’ surveillance – Brennan, Rice, and former Attorney General Loretta Lynch.

Power is a bit of a wild card – Why would the UN Ambassador be involved in unmasking American citizens?\

About the AuthorRusty Weiss

Rusty Weiss is a freelance journalist focusing on the conservative movement and its political agenda. He has been writing conservatively charged articles for several years in the upstate New York area, and his writings have appeared in the Daily Caller, American Thinker, FoxNews.com, Big Government, the Times Union, and the Troy Record. He is also Editor of one of the top conservative blogs of 2012, the Mental Recession.